Approach
Feeding America saw an enormous influx of emergency donors from the pandemic, when stories of rising need was all over the news and social media. But, like many emergency donors, Feeding America struggled to retain these donors once the news calmed down.
We began by surveying the new audience, where we learned what motivates them:
- A religious or moral responsibility to help the community
- Frustration that hunger is a problem when food security should be a right
- Interest in how the gifts are put to use and how Feeding America works with food banks.
We launched an omnichannel approach in three phases: Prime & Thank, Ask, and Remind to engage these supporters and convert them at higher percentages. All channels were used to educate supporters about the importance of their donation and thank them — including cultivation ads, direct ask ads, a cultivation email, robocall thank you, and postcard. In the Ask stage, donors were asked for renewal donations in inmail ads, mobile ads, direct mail, and of course, email.
Slightly stronger messaging and “pending” language was used in the final “Reminder” stage to nudge donors off the sidelines to make a gift.
In all, the strategy included over a dozen touch points across 2.5 months including ads, email, direct mail packages, a postcard, and a personal recorded phone message.
